Tag Archives: Reading

Thinning the Home Library

One by one.
Book after book after book.
Pull off the shelf.
Read the title.
Check for an inscription.

Haven’t read it? Give it away. (A very small pile.)

A textbook? Have I used it since taking the class?
Can I imagine turning to it for any reason?
Keep? Give away?

An old favorite?
Remember the story.
Remember the person who gave it to me.
Remember why I bought it.
Remember how it made me feel or gave me hope or challenged my world view.
Remember.

Keep? Give away?
Have I re-read it?
Will I read it again?
Have I quoted from it?
Was it a gift?
Does it make me smile?
Is it a connection to someone I love?
Keep? Give away?

One by one.
Book after book after beloved book.

We have to have our floor replaced (it’s become a safety hazard). Every piece of furniture, including all the bookcases, will be moved at least twice. So we’re clearing the bookshelves, packing books into boxes, and taking the opportunity to thin the ever growing collection of books. – Teressa

Tell Me the Old, Old Story

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“Tell me the old, old story … of Jesus and his love.” – Hymn by Katherine Hankey, 1866

I’ve been clearing bookshelves, packing up books. Every piece of furniture – including the bookcases and their contents – must be moved so the floor can be replaced. We’re using it as an opportunity to thin our library.

The three books pictured came to me from my mother. Two clearly belonged to her stepfather. The inscription in Bible Picture ABC Book suggests it was a Christmas gift to him when he was three years old.

A page from Bible Picture ABC Book by Elsie e. Egermeier. Illustrated by Charles B. Millar and Ruthven H. Byrum. Anderson, Indiana: Gospel Trumpet Company, 1924.

The Story of Jesus was also a gift: “To Arthur for Ideas to Paint – Mother -“. Based on the copyright date (MCMXXXIX), the man I knew as Grandpa Art would have been a teenager. He grew up to be a High School Art Teacher who painted, carved, made pottery and pursued other artistic endeavors.

A page from The Story of Jesus. Akron, Ohio: The Saalfield Pub. Co., 1939.

The third book does not have an inscription but considering the topic and the copyright date, I imagine it also came from the Lenz family. Knowing they lived on a ranch in eastern Montana, I called Mom to ask if they could have afforded books. Her reply was along the lines of “Oh, yes, Grandpa Lenz came from money.” She also said that Grandma Lenz was a teacher so having books in their house made sense.

Wee Folks Stories is a wee-sized book that is about the size of my hand – 4.25″ wide by 5.5″ tall. True to its title, nearly every word in the book is only one syllable!

Rather than keep these books, I think I’ll send them to my Aunt Clara. She’s just the sort who would enjoy having Bible story books that were used by her father.

Three books I won’t have reshelve! (Is that three fewer or three less? I’d look it up, but I’ve already packed the reference book and I don’t want to search the web.)

May you have time to read today!

Birthday Book

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As soon as I read about it in November, I knew I wanted it.

I suggested it as a Christmas gift. But the book wasn’t officially available until December.

So I ordered A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick for my birthday. It arrived Friday – along with four other books in three packages.

Birthday Books 2019. To share with my beloved. Photo: TLClark.

I’m the sort of person who likes books about books. A Velocity of Being is not quite that. It’s better: letters about reading from authors and artists, musicians and scientists, actors and others. Each was asked to “write a short letter to the young readers of today and tomorrow about how reading sculpted their character and their destiny.” (Maria Popova, “Introduction,” A Velocity of Being).

As if that were not enough, every letter is accompanied by a work of art created in response to that particular message. The works by illustrators, graphic designers and other artists are exquisite, adding a rich layer of interpretation to the letter.

Just a few examples:

In the first letter Jacqueline Woodson writes of reading to her young son and impulsively kissing “the top of my son’s mohawked head.” (p. 16) Lara Hawthorne captures the moment beautifully.
Leonard Marcus encourages us to pack books carefully when moving. “Not many things in life can be counted as ‘permanent possessions.’ But a few things can, and our favorite books are among them.” (p. 158) Julia Rothman’s illustration shows the chaos of boxes being packed to move with one carefully marked “PERMANENT POSSESSIONS.”
“The world itself is all beautiful” Andrew Solomon writes, “but sometimes it can be hard to see that, and books let you understand moments of beauty you might otherwise miss.” (p. 100) He writes about loneliness, justice, kindness, sadness, happiness and more, two sentences at a time. Catarina Sobral used bright, bold, primary colors to portray a child whose world is upended by reading a book.

I haven’t read every letter – yet. Nor have I spent time musing over every illustration – yet. A Velocity of Being will take some time to absorb and to enjoy – one letter, one picture at a time.

Read about Maria Popova’s creative vision for the book and see some of the many exquisite illustrations by visiting her blog: A Velocity of Being: Illustrated Letters to Children about Why We Read.

“The Wonderer” (Stanza 5 – You/Creation)

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In the first four stanzas of “The Wonderer” Robert William Service wrote of

“the moving marvel of my Hand”
“the wonder of my Eyes”
“the wonder of my Heart”
“the wondrous wonder of my Brain”

Lest you and I think we are any less marvelous than he, the beginning of the fifth stanza of the poem assures us otherwise.

But do not think, O patient friend,
Who reads these stanzas to the end,
That I myself would glorify. . . .
You’re just as wonderful as I,
And all Creation in our view
Is quite as marvelous as you.

The pastor in me immediately remembered the words of the psalmist: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Ps 139:14a NRSV) Not just me. You, too, are fearfully and wonderfully made. Nothing less than a marvel.

The rest of the fifth stanza – the way it is printed makes it look like it is not a new stanza – is an invitation to wonder.

Come, let us on the sea-shore stand
And wonder at a grain of sand;
And then into the meadow pass
And marvel at a blade of grass;
Or cast our vision high and far
And thrill with wonder at a star;
A host of stars — night’s holy tent
Huge-glittering with wonderment.

I searched through my digital photographs looking for sand and grass and stars. I took time to marvel at the variety of unique flowers and wonder at the shapes of many individual leaves. But flowers and leaves aren’t mentioned in this stanza of the poem.

I don’t take many landscape pictures. Nevertheless I found a few photos that sort of reflect the fifth stanza of Service’s poem. Hope you’ll take a moment to wonder or marvel or thrill – not so much at the pictures but of the memories you have of a sea-shore, a meadow, and the night sky.

Beach, Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, Washington. Photo: TLClark, 10/7/2018

Sand on Fingers and Rock, Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, Washington. Photo: TLClark, 10/7/2018.

Meadow, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Illinois. Photo: TLClark, 6/29/2013

Blade of Grass after the rain. Photo: TLClark, 6/29/2013

Epiphany Stars, Faith UCC, January, 2013

This is another in a series of posts in response to the poem “The Wonderer” by Robert William Service. Read the whole poem by clicking here. The first stanza is in my first post found here; the second is here, the third is here and the fourth is here.

“The Wonderer” (4th stanza: Brain)

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This is the fourth of a series of posts in response to the poem “The Wonderer” by Robert William Service. Read the whole poem by clicking here. The first stanza is in my first post found here; the second is here and the third is here.

Now, the fourth stanza of the poem “The Wonderer” by Robert Service:

Then oh! but how can I explain
The wondrous wonder of my Brain?
That marvelous machine that brings
All consciousness of wonderings;
That lets me from myself leap out
And watch my body walk about;
It’s hopeless – all my words are vain
To tell the wonder of my Brain.

A few observations about how the brain operates. There is the “Eureka!” sort of moment; a realization of discovery. There is the “Wow!” of wonder, of being taken aback at how another is thinking. There is the pondering, the imagining of what might be.

EUREKA! As a brand spanking new Computer Programmer in the “real world” in 1987 I was amazed at how my brain worked. Computer coursework in college had not taught me exactly what I needed to know. But it had taught me how to think to learn what I did need to know for using particular programming languages in a specific computing environment. I marveled at how my brain made connections.

WOW! My oldest nephew was about 4 years old when I pulled out the book God’s Paintbrush by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. Upon hearing the title, B responded in a matter-of-fact tone, “It must be really big.” It took me a moment to realize that God, who is pretty big to a preschooler, would have a really big paintbrush.

IMAGINE. Ponder. Contemplate. Wonder. About a creative endeavor. About a career move. About the words of a poem, the lyrics of a song, the phrases in a text. About a relationship. About God.

Holy God … assure us again that ear has not heard, nor eye seen, nor human imagination envisioned, what you have prepared for those you love you. – From Book of Worship, United Church of Christ.

God has prepared things for those who love God that no eye has seen, or ear has heard, or that haven’t crossed the mind of any human being. – 1 Corinthians 2:9b CEB

Language and Reading

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I’ve started the new year with two works of fiction. One was added to my “to read” list as soon as I heard the author was preparing to release her next book. The other was a Christmas gift.

Both books are written in English. Both have language that stretches me.

Tony Hillerman has long been one of my parent’s favorite authors. But it’s my first time to read one of his books. I started The Blessing Way as bedtime reading on Tuesday.

I have read every book in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series – except the latest one – at least twice. The Kingdom of the Blind went with me on Wednesday as waiting room reading. Once started, I read it straight through, putting it down only to drive home, to prepare and eat supper, and to sleep.

Returning to the Hillerman book, I was struck by how I was challenged by the language. The names of the native peoples, their names for places, and even some of the descriptions of the southwestern U.S. landscape are mostly foreign to me. I have to concentrate to keep them straight.

Set in French speaking Canada, Penny’s books also include names of people and places which are mostly foreign to me. Having done nothing with the French I took in college 34 years ago, decoding phrases written in French takes effort. I have to concentrate.

Reading as an enjoyable pastime requires falling into the language. Relaxing into the rhythm of words and phrases and sentences. Being open to new vocabulary as well as new ideas. Allowing the text to reveal a new or unfamiliar world.

What are you reading? How is it challenging you to see more broadly or think more deeply?

So many books. So little time.

Another LQQK

shift focus, see further, gaze deeper

Tag Archives: Reading

Thinning the Home Library

Tell Me the Old, Old Story

Birthday Book

“The Wonderer” (Stanza 5 – You/Creation)

“The Wonderer” (4th stanza: Brain)

Language and Reading

Letter to Santa